Is the NDP changing its stripes on trade liberalization?

The NDP elected a centrist leader in Thomas Mulcair just two months ago, but ever since then, the party’s shift into traditional Liberal territory on trade policy has been palpable.

Former trade critic Peter Julian, whose anti-NAFTA rants epitomized the Conservative depictions of the bad-for-business NDP, has been replaced by Don Davies, whose views on trade are not out of step with most Liberals and many within the progressive wing of the Conservatives.

Liberal trade critic Wayne Easter described him as “a different kind of character” than the ones who used to sit on the committee – and more of “a diplomat.”

But, Easter adds, it’s not just matter of personality.

“As far as (the NDP’s) trade position, my observation would be that it has turned 180 degrees,” Easter told iPolitics. “I think it’s coming from the very centre. It’s coming from Mulcair. I think Mulcair is trying to head the NDP but be a Liberal.”

“It’s the reality of the world and the orders have gone forth that if (the NDP) going to continue to try to move ahead and be seen as an alternative government, then they have to soften their positions on the trade issues.”

Conservative MP Ed Holder, who also sits on the trade committee, has noticed the change, too.

“I think it’s a clear strategy to give the impression that they’re sufficiently moderate to be able to govern,” he told iPolitics. “The tone is different.”

Holder said it appears to be part of “the ‘Mulcair-I’m-ready-to-govern’ mindset,” that has included pushing “the more aggressive elements” of the NDP into less prominent positions.

Despite what appears to be a new approach to trade policy on the part of the official Opposition, however, both MPs said the proof will be in the pudding.

“To me the acid test, irrespective of tone, to me the acid test is — what are you going to do when there are issues of substance,” Holder said.

For Holder, that means voting in favour of a trade agreement for the first time – whether it be the Canada-EU deal, Canada-Jordan, Canada-India, or any other of the myriad deals on the government’s radar.

The NDP’s past aversion to trade deals is something Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative caucus go out of their way to remind Canadians of any time they get a chance.

Listening to Davies, though, the Conservatives may soon have to tweak that criticism.

“Take a country like Jordan: I think I’m prepared to give careful agreement to a trade agreement like that, where I think that engaging with a country…may actually help,” Davies said, referring to questions that have hovered over Jordan’s human rights record. “I’m prepared to take the Conservatives at their word and say, ‘Let’s give it a shot’, but let’s engage with this country.”

That’s a far cry from a trade committee meeting in March, when Davies’ predecessor, Brian Masse, condemned the idea of trading with any country with a questionable human rights record.

At the time, Masse rejected the idea that Canada shouldn’t hold up a trade deal with Jordan on the basis that we already trade with countries whose rights records are far worse.

But Davies, a former labour lawyer, said he’s taking a more comprehensive and analytical approach to the trade file, and that he doesn’t want ideology to hold sway over empirical evidence.

At a rare partisan moment, he compared it to the Conservatives’ refusal to consider changes to the omnibus crime bill.

“I’m doing a complete examination of the positions that we’ve taken in the past and will either reconfirm those positions in many cases or be open to altering them,” he explained.

In the Canada-Jordan context, that means testing the waters on the Conservative position that liberalized trade improves human rights, labour rights, and environmental standards.

“They claim that the way to elevate those standards in countries with whom we trade is to engage with those countries. I think they may be right in that in a large number of cases and I’m prepared to re-examine our position on that.”